


Swallowing Bees Is Dangerous For Your Health

by winteryserpent (silencedancer)



Category: The Secret World
Genre: Apiarybuzzings, Gen, Pyromancy, adorable blanket gremlin, being recruited by secret organization, some body horror, unpleasant gaining of superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 02:03:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13284597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silencedancer/pseuds/winteryserpent
Summary: Kostya, my main character in SWL, and his experience upon swallowing a bee with a bonus Owen as his Illuminati recruiter. Written for the Apiary Art Contest. Owen belongs to VigilantShadow.





	Swallowing Bees Is Dangerous For Your Health

“No, mama, the goth thing isn’t a phase….Yes, I’m going to be a goth engineer—I do clean up well. No, I’m not going to interviews dressed like that. Remember last Christmas? I dressed all proper then. Yes, I know you’re concerned, but really don’t worry—mama, I need to get some reading done for school—love you and tell papa that I love him too.”

Kostya ended the call and fell back on his bed, exhausted from his long day. Thinking to only briefly rest his eyes before starting on his reading, he found himself falling asleep instead. He only managed to just click the bedside table lamp off before he passed out, dead to the world around him.

That is, until he woke up with a start, viciously coughing, feeling as if something _wrong_ had gone down his throat. Something that _crawled_. All at once he felt sick and feverish and found himself stumbling out of bed in fear of his nausea becoming more, only to fall unconscious on the floor.

Strange dreams came to him, full of things that oozed and whispered in the dark. There was the strange taste of honey in his mouth, warning him against the breaking of things. Sometimes he woke up, his head heavy, a ringing sound in his ears (or was it buzzing?—he couldn’t tell), and an underlying sense of panic underneath it all.

When he finally awoke fully from those nightmarish dreams, dizzy but lucid, he felt a strange surge of what he could only call “power” go through him. Frowning, he reached for the glass on his bedside table, which suddenly was engulfed in blue flames.

“Shit, shit!” Kostya grabbed for a pillow to desperately snuff out the fire, but that too ended up on fire. “Shit!” he cried out, “WHY ARE YOU ON FIRE??? YOU AREN’T SUPPOSED TO BE ON FIRE.”

As soon as he finished the last sentence, the fires went out. He stared at the water glass and saw that it had no fire damage on or around it. Frowning, he reached for it again and it lit anew.

“Oh come _on_ ,” whined Kostya, feeling like the world’s weirdest prank was being played on him. The flame went out again and Kostya just snatched it up without really thinking first.

Luckily for him, it was still cool to the touch.

Then it was on fire again. Kostya dropped it, more out of surprise than pain, though he winced at the sound of the glass shattering on the floor. 

Now he had glass to clean on top of his sudden case of pyromancy and his headache. If only he wasn’t too afraid to move, lest something else weird happened. For that, unfortunately, he didn’t even have to move. As Kostya stood there, staring at the shards of glass, a roar built up in his ears and then everything went to hell.

\---

Owen could always tell when he was approaching one of the new bees on his list. There was that tell-tale staticky feeling to the air, as if too much power had been released recently, a disturbance in the “force” so to say. At least the apartment looked intact as he approached the apartment door, which was slightly ajar.

He wasn’t sure if he should knock first or check to see if the occupant was okay. The first days were always rough for the newly chosen by Gaia and they always needed as much help as they could get. Which was honestly why Owen volunteered for this job. Not all the recruits had the right tact to deal with these types. That much uncontrolled power without a focus was dangerous and one had to tread carefully.

Owen sighed, it was always better that it was him rather than a random neighbor. Covering up accidental incinerations was _never_ fun. He knocked to be polite just before he cautiously eased the door open, wondering what kind of mess he’ll find this time.

The room was the usual telekinetic mess he was used to finding—thankfully nothing was on fire. Well, that is, except for the burning plant, but it seemed contained. The sight of that would’ve relieved him if he also didn’t have his potential recruit glaring at him from underneath a makeshift blanket fort—no, blanket pile, situated next to the burning plant.

But he’s faced worse than a grumpy baby bee.

“Hi!” started Owen in a rather cheerful voice as he looked over the file in his hand, “You must be Konstantin Starikov. I’m from an organization that is very interested in your particular skill set and will help you in any way to improve it. I see you currently have a bachelor’s in Engineering and that is very good for both you and my organization. Who by the way, are the Illuminati and they have _very_ good benefits. We want our agents to be as functional as possible after all.”

There was an awkward silence before the man he had come to recruit shifted slightly from under his blanket pile, one sliding off his head to reveal his messy blue hair and sleep deprived eyes.

“Name’s Kostya, no need to be formal,” he said in a rather dry, monotone voice, “I thought the illuminati weren’t real, you know, but considering the last week…”

“Nope we’re completely real! We can get you fully set up and straightened out,” said Owen as he gestured to the mess around him, “Our insurance is already ACA compliant _before_ schedule because our agents only deserve the best and we also have excellent in-house doctors. We only hire the best after all,” said Owen with a smile, the only way he could deal with the image of Zurn getting his hands on his recruit. It wasn’t that bad as initiations went, but still not fun.

“Can you explain what happened to me?” Kostya’s voice broke, sounding as almost as if he was on the verge of crying. Which honestly Owen couldn’t blame him for.

“Yes, we can. And If you come with us, we’ll help you get your powers under control as well. Though,” said Owen as he gestured to the burning…aloe plant, “You seem to already be on your way there.”

“What do I tell my parents? They don’t like this kind of stuff.”

“Oh we already have an Engineering internship cover all ready for you and we’ll handle your university as well.” 

Kostya sighed and stood up, thankfully fully clothed. That is, if you considered boxer shorts and a band t-shirt as such. “Well, I might as well sign my soul over to the devil. I already feel like I’ve been possessed anyways.”

“Nah, not possessed. You just swallowed a bee, that’s all.” Owen held out his hand out, which Kostya took. “Welcome to the Illuminati.”


End file.
